De guerre lasse (1987)
Directed by Robert Enrico

Film Review

Robert Enrico directed this poignant adaptation of the 1985 novel of the same title by the acclaimed French writer Françoise Sagan (who is best known for her international bestseller Bonjour tristesse, which was adapted for cinema by Otto Preminger in 1958). Despite the wartime setting and subplots involving the French Resistance, De guerre lasse is essentially a familiar three-way romance, with two male friends ultimately falling out over the same woman.  What makes this film particularly memorable, apart from the close attention to period detail and some attractive photography, are the full-bodied performances from the three leads: Nathalie Baye, Christophe Malavoy and Pierre Arditi.  Henri Serre, one of the stars of possibly the most famous French love triangle movie, Truffaut's Jules et Jim (1962), appears in a supporting role.

Baye is on particularly fine form here with her harrowingly true-to-life portrayal of a woman who is both marked by the horrific death of one man and then torn between two men whom she loves with equal passion.  Exquisitely understated, delicately composed but with some moments of raw emotional intensity, De guerre lasse is one of Robert Enrico's most engaging and compassionate films, a world apart from his earlier full-on thriller Les Aventuriers (1967) and more dramatic wartime drama Le Vieux fusil (1975).

Film Synopsis

May, 1942.  After her husband, a Jewish surgeon, commits suicide, Alice leaves Nazi-controlled Austria with Jerôme, a diplomat.  Arriving in the Free Zone in German-occupied France, the couple appeal for help from a childhood friend of Jerôme, Charles Sambrat.  The latter is a shoe manufacture who continues to prosper in spite of the war.  Whilst Charles is preoccupied with Alice, Jerôme resumes his resistance activities, using Charles' country home as a temporary shelter for Jewish fugitives.  Although initially reluctant to become involved, Charles insists on accompanying Alice to Paris when she undertakes a resistance mission for Jerôme...